Conference Session

Alternative Methods of Teaching and Learning Mechanics

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Keith D. Hjelmstad, Arizona State University; Amie Baisley, University of Florida

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

, similar to an exam. The students spend the class period solving theproblem and do peer grading at the end (to familiarize them with the grading rubric). Theproblem is the same level of difficulty as the module assessment, so it serves as practice (hencethe name ‘rehearsal’). The rehearsal exam environment is the same as recitation—theinstructional staff are all there, students work in groups, and students can use their notes andexamples.The last 10 minutes of the rehearsal exam period are spent peer grading another student’srehearsal exam. The students exchange exams with their peers and grade while the instructordiscusses the solution to the problem. The students are given guidance on how to grade the exam.The peer grading is an important

Conference Session

Teaching Statics: What and How?

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

David Allen Evenhouse, Purdue University at West Lafayette; Charles Morton Krousgrill, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Jeffrey F. Rhoads, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Edward J. Berger, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Jennifer Deboer, Purdue University, West Lafayette

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

environment (called Freeform) employed in Statics was developed withinthe context of Dynamics courses offered at PWUL to combine best practices from active learning,blended learning, and collaborative learning research [11], [12]. The environment itself revolvesaround a “lecturebook” that serves as both a textbook and a notebook for the students. Thecurriculum proceeds through the sequential chapters of the lecturebook with students writing theirpersonal notes directly on the pages of the lecturebook itself. Instructors use example problemsfrom the lecturebook during class, and their students can look up videos showing the solutions tothese examples (including those not covered during in-class instruction) by going online to thecourse website

Conference Session

Concept Inventories in Mechanics

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Ann Reimers, University of Virginia; Stefen Beeler-Duden, University of Virginia

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

instruction to improve students’ grasp of the material.The Rotational Kinematics Inventory (RKI) is a peer-reviewed, validated assessment tool formeasuring students’ conceptual understanding of rotational kinematics. It is provided forteachers’ use by PhysPort, a website maintained by the American Association of PhysicsTeachers (AAPT) and supported by the National Science Foundation [3]. PhysPort gives theRKI a “silver” rating, its second highest ranking of research validation. This rating was grantedbecause the tool was developed through student interviews, expert review and statistical analysis,tested by multiple research groups at multiple institutions and the results were peer-reviewed [3].Development and testing of the inventory were reported by

Conference Session

Hybrid and Online Teaching of Mechanics

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Serge Raymond Maalouf, University of Maine; Olivier Putzeys P.E., University of Maine

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

new material. In the activity sessions, students work on hands-onexperiments, computer simulations, and/or problems with support from the instructor andteaching assistant. The new aspects of this statics course are: (1) the blended format; (2) thedevelopment of novel activities for the classroom and laboratory; (3) the use of a “lightboard”, inwhich the instructor writes on a glass board while facing the video camera, to record the mini-lecture videos; (4) the flexibility for the instructor to “flip” any desired percentage of thesemester’s lectures; (5) the collections of videos and activities are available for instructors acrossmultiple campuses. Direct assessments and student surveys indicate that the blended format wasgenerally effective

Conference Session

Assessment Strategies in Mechanics

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Geoffrey Recktenwald, Michigan State University; Tamara Bush, Michigan State University; Ron Averill, Michigan State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

builds a framework for grading based on motivating students to develop thesepractices as their study habits.The method was developed and tested over a 3.5-year period in a Mechanics of Materials course.The results were very promising, with student improvements of at least one standard deviationwhen compared to their peers in traditional courses. The goal of this paper is to demonstrate thatthe method can be applied to more than just the original course. For this study the authors haveadopted and implemented the SMART method for a different course, Introduction to Dynamics.While the course is still part of the engineering mechanics curriculum, it has several importantfeatures that make it worthwhile to demonstrate the versatility of the SMART

Conference Session

Grading and Feedback Models in Mechanics

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Petros Sideris, Texas A&M University; Maria Koliou, Texas A&M University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

, learning environment, andacademic concern. The TA section includes an overall rating for the teaching assistant (TA). Atthe end of each section, a “Comments/Suggestions” box is included, where the students areencouraged to write their comments. These surveys are administered typically at 1/3 (Week 5)and 2/3 (Week 10) of the semester.Based on the findings of each survey, the instructor makes a brief presentation during class,where the most frequent comments/issues are discussed along with actions to address them. Thethird survey further serves as a measure of the efficiency of the adopted actions from the secondsurvey. The fourth survey is administered by the university typically during Week 14 of thesemester and serves as a final assessment

Conference Session

Assessment Strategies in Mechanics

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Keith D. Hjelmstad, Arizona State University; Amie Baisley, University of Florida

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

use to sortperformances prior to giving the final course grade. In fact, the S-index that is reported on thedashboard represents this calculation based upon the work completed at that time. The portion ofthe S-index that comes from mastery is the M-index, which is also given on the dashboard. TheM-index is basically a weighted sum of the mastery bars and is designed to come out roughlyequal to the number of objectives mastered at the end of the semester. It does not represent thatearly in the semester but provides relative measure for students to gage their progress relative totheir peers in mastery alone.No matter what angle you take, it is not possible to determine course grade from mastery alone.But that is true for any course with